“NO! NO! NO!”
My mom screamed bloody murder like someone was stabbing her favorite child (hmm… which one is that, anyway?).
Something was being stabbed, but it wasn’t any of us. It was her 13-inch aluminum cake pan, and she was mortified. That cake pan had served us for the past thirty New Year’s Eve celebrations as we rang in the new year. At midnight, we would head outside with pan lids, pots, metal spoons, and that cake pan to cheer with a loud *clang, clang, clang.
And every year, that cake pan got a little more dented and bent by all the beatings.
To put it out of its misery, instead of *clang, clang, clang… Nathan used a honing rod to *stab, stab, stab. Sad. RIP, dear old cake pan. Ergo, mom’s exclamations: “NO, NO, NO!” She loved that pan.
I suppose we could spiritualize the story and make the pan represent something that needs to die as we go into the new year. For example, C. S. Lewis told the story of the red lizard of lust that needed to be killed before the Christian could move forward.
Or maybe the pan represents a bad habit—one that you’ve had a long while—but this is the year to beat it by God’s power. Your flesh will scream, “NO, NO, NO,” but your spirit knows what’s right and good. Just read Romans 7 to see what I mean.
I don’t know what sin or setback needs to die in you this year, but it’s probably not nothing.
Or, maybe the pan represents a pan, and it’s just a funny story. In that case, laugh the new year in with us as we recall our funny family memory.
In the end, mom got a new pan. Nathan is not allowed near it.
HAPPY NEW YEAR.
–Pastor Ryan